mens
Gallagher-Prime Minister
Leicesgther Tigers coach Geoff Parling felt the way his players dealt with problems in the opening stages was the key to a convincing 28-7 win over the champions Northampton Saints.
The Tigers came from behind as they achieved total dominance on the back of a fierce fightback in a one-sided second half as they ran in four unanswered tries to secure a win that took them into second place Gallagher PREM.
Saints led 7-3 at half-time at a wet Mattioli Woods Welford Road, but when the Tigers hit the ground running there was only one winner.
Parling said: “I thought the way the players dealt with set-up issues, which was an issue at the start of the game, was brilliant.
“It (the set-up) didn’t work early on and I think maybe we were slow to adapt to some of the trials.
“Then we obviously got on the front foot and showed our power. We showed our application on that side of the game.
“The dressing room (at half-time) was honestly the quietest dressing room you could imagine, and we didn’t have a lot of tactical messages. We just felt that if we were a little bit more precise in what we were doing, we would get some upper hand.
“The good thing about this group is that we’ll go away and we’ll still look at it as if we’ve lost, and there will still be things we can be a lot better at.
“I’m really pleased with the emotional energy they threw into that game.”
James Pater’s early converted try put Saints ahead and Freddie Steward’s penalty was the Tigers’ only response before the break.
But Leicester hit in front with a try from Jamie Blamire early in the second half and then pressed home their lead. Further tries from Cameron Henderson, Finn Carnduff and Steward sealed the big win.
Northampton’s director of rugby, Phil Dowson, admitted the game got away from him “around set-up” and “around discipline”.
He added: “We gave them chances in our own 22 and basically we didn’t respond enough to them.
“And in the first half we gave away penalties, but I thought our reaction to them was much stronger in the first half and it’s hard to really put where it dissipated.”
“I thought we were scrappy in it. Obviously they had some dominance that hurt us and that put them in our 22 and gave them a ton of energy.
“In the first half I wasn’t surprised to see us react the way we did. In the second half we didn’t seem to have the same voice about us.”
